About us

The cars we drive say a lot about us.-Alexandra Paul

Way back in the summers of 2015, 3 Indian guys were on a conference call: one was driving from Osaka to Tokyo, the second was driving from Munich to Budapest and the third was taking a break from his 8-hour continuous bike ride in Tibet. After the usual routines on time-zone issues, the local food (or the lack of it) and traffic patterns, they came to an interesting perspective: how is it that despite Indians being adventurous everywhere were not able to bring that hotness to the Indian automobile industry.

Meeting a month later in person, they figured some interesting stats. The big heavyweights of the car market (US, Western Europe, Australia) had a mix of utility, heavyweights and adventure cars backed by a strong community of informed individuals who had access to all kinds of resources to follow their passion for cars. And this segment of enthusiasts had evolved as their car markets did.

India is currently going through its automobile revolution: gone are the days when mileage and re-sale value were the only parameters people made their selection on. The new Indian car buyer wants features, wants buttons, wants a higher ride height and wants sportier looks (with tons of chrome). We will be a heavy-weight in the next 3-4 years.

AutoColumn is the newest and hottest all-you-want-to-know-about-your-car online destination for Indian car owners, potential customers and enthusiasts. Led by a core team which has a combined driving experience of more than 10 lakh km (625k miles) on 75+ cars in more than 30 countries around the world, we are an unbiased and independent organization striving to provide our readers and followers the latest happenings in the automotive arena in India and abroad, and helping break the mysteries of car dynamics by simplifying the technologies in your car.

In short, if you are passionate about anything on wheels, we will help fuel it to realization.

AutoColumn will be India’s largest car information platform in India by 2017 comprehensively covering every aspect from auto manufacturing to new launches, reviews, performance mods and user experiences.

We can only be as good as our readers believe us to be, and hence we appreciate any feedback from you to help us figure out our opportunity areas.

And as the great Jeremy Clarkson once said:

It’s what non-car people don’t get. They see all cars as just a ton and a half, two tons of wires, glass, metal, and rubber, and that’s all they see. People like you or I know we have an unshakable belief that cars are living entities… You can develop a relationship with a car and that’s what non-car people don’t get… When something has foibles and won’t handle properly, that gives it a particularly human quality because it makes mistakes, and that’s how you can build a relationship with a car that other people won’t get.

Core Team:

Amit Ahirrao (Founder):

Amit is a passionate automobile engineer from Coventry University and works on the active and passive safety of cars. He has driven vehicles of all shapes and sizes right from Tata Nano to Jaguar F-Type R to truck on and off roads, and has driven on the world’s toughest terrains in Tibet. An automobile expert, he can fix anything that has wheels and has experience of driving more than 400,000+ km which include testing cars in the coveted Buddh International circuit (BIC). Amit has featured in more than 30 TV car commercials as a precision driver for global brands like Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Yamaha, Skoda etc.

Sumit Gaikwad (Editor- Road test and Reviews):

Sumit is amongst the youngest in India to conquer the world’s highest motorable road of Leh-Ladakh (aged 19). On a normal day, he is either seen restoring his classic bikes or giving automobile service advice at MotoMojo. Sumit is an Automobile Engineer and one of the founders of www.autocolumn.com, he is also a road test editor and loves to write about his experience. He has a driving experience of 300,000+ km and can drive absolutely anything that has wheels.

Prateek Vidya (Managing Editor):

A graduate from IIT Bombay, Prateek quit his fancy job at Procter & Gamble to pursue his most coveted expedition. He has 150,000+ km of driving experience in the last 4 years having completed expeditions across the UK, Iceland, Europe and the Middle East. He is extremely passionate about automobiles and driving, and has a mission to get people out of their comfort zones and chase that adventure they usually just dream of!